T-62

The T-62 is a Soviet main battle tank that was produced from 1961 to 1975 in the Soviet Union, from 1975 to 1978 in Czechoslovakia, and in North Korea during the 1980s. First introduced in 1961, the tank was the first to have a smoothbore tank gun that could fire kinetic energy penetrator rounds, but its higher manufacturing costs led to the T-54/55 remaining the USSR's most-produced tank. The Israeli Tiran-6 was designed after Israel captured some Egyptian T-62s during the Yom Kippur War, and the tank found its way into the hands of several former Soviet republics and Eastern Bloc nations. Over 22,700 have been built since 1961.